Today I wanted to work on being more interesting for Kai and to have a better draw at liberty. Kai had made a game of running away if I used a little more energy and asked more of him. I wanted to know what I could do to win that game.

We began by doing HQ yields. Kai tried to block me from reaching his bum with his nose and he left if I blocked him with my hand. Kaila had me do catching game when he would leave and then the yields when he would come back.

Kaila also explained that in order for Kai to want to come back faster I needed to back up at the same speed he was coming until he would speed up and put effort in catching me.

Kai began to come back with more exuberance and had a very playful attitude. Soon he was coming back faster and did not go as far away as before. He also had a couple of funny moments when he started to leave at a gallop for about four steps but then he would change his mind and come back.

When he was doing nice HQ yields I tested the FQ yield which was surprisingly light. Then Kaila had us do a little dance of two steps HQ yield, two steps FQ yields and then repeat on the other side. When Kai did both sides nicely and stayed connected we moved on to yoyo game.

First, I asked Kai to back up three steps before asking him back in. Then I worked on increasing the steps he took backwards. Kai disconnected a few times but he came back quickly. Then Kaila explained to me that my connection with Kai was like silly putty. If you slowly pull it apart it stays connected but it slowly gets thinner. However if you keep pulling it apart it will break. So when I am playing with Kai I need to feel the connection stretch and try to keep it from breaking. The more it breaks the more fragile it becomes. As I play more and more I will become more and more aware of the connection and the connection will get stronger and stronger.

There was a moment where I asked Kai to back up a little more and he glanced away from me and then looked back at me. I could tell that he was considering leaving. I was asking him for one more step at the moment and I wondered weather whether to bring him in or persist. I decided to persist so I softened my energy and kept asking him. Kai made a gesture with his nose to the other end of the arena as he took the step back so I quickly invited him in. This happened so fast I didn't have much time to think. This moment helped me understand and feel that silly-putty-like connection that Kaila talked about.